The Duke Blue Devils play Mercer in the NCAA tournament on Friday and the second round college basketball game comes live from PNC Arena in Raleigh and will be streaming online at 12:15 pm ET for the Midwest bracket and has Jabari Parker looking to make a run in his first March Madness.
Duke comes into the game as a three seed against a 14 and Coach K knows he can't overlook any opponent after what happened in the tournament on Thursday and Parker, along with Quinn Cook, Rasheed Sulaimon and Rodney Hood all will have to be at their best to get things going and they could make a run in the tournament. Duke was one of the most consistent teams in the nation this year and while they lost to Virginia in the ACC tournament, they are still very strong up front and Parker has been by far one of the best players in the nation and he has led the team in scoring and rebounding all season.
Parker and Hood came to Duke to play in the tournament and win championships and now they will get that started in the second round even though it's actually the first round and they come in after winning five of their last seven games, losing only to Wake Forest and the Cavaliers and that final game was in the conference tourney. Virginia won the ACC in the regular season and postseason on the strength of their defense and now Duke will try and make a nice run into the Final Four this year and it could be the last chance for Parker, as he is a freshman and could leave for the NBA next season.
Duke went 26-8 overall this season and 13-5 in the ACC and they are averaging nearly 80 points per game and is shooting nearly 47 percent from the field and if they can keep that up, they should be one of the toughest teams to matchup with in the entire tournament. The defense has been solid as well, as the team is averaging seven steals per game and is 96th in points allowed and now they have the chance to try and win their first title since 2010 and before that they last won in 2001. The team has made nearly 40 appearances in the tournament and has been to 15 Final Fours and this year should be interesting, as some upsets have already gone down.
Duke comes in with Parker leading the team in scoring with nearly 20 points per game as a freshman and he was impressive shooting the ball, making over 47 percent of his shots, while Hood was second on the team with 16 points per game. The team got nearly nine rebounds per game from Parker and Amile Jefferson was solid as well with nearly seven per game, while Sulaimon and Cook were tops on the team in assists. Duke has the experience and leadership to make a run and they have one of the toughest brackets in the Midwest one with Wichita State, Michigan and Louisville.
Click here for the Duke and Mercer tournament live coverage.